Rugged

“Rugged” is my very first pointillism piece! I worked on and off on it for almost four years, adding on to it whenever I had the time. It began in 2019, as a year long project for my graduating year of highschool.

I chose this specific image because my art teacher at the time asked us to choose a project that would last us the entire year. The details, lines and character in this person’s face seemed impossible to recreate at the time, and so I jumped at the chance to give it a shot. Pointillism was something I had always wanted to try, and this was the perfect chance to make an attempt at it!

Pointillism is the art of dots, and if you zoom in, you can see that the entire face of this piece was created by me quite literally sitting there for hours on end, dotting away! I went through 14 micro-tip pens to fit all of these dots, and at the time had actually bought out the brand that I had been using from my local art store. I remember how worried I was about getting the artwork done, as the specific brand of pens had been taken out of production, meaning that if the ones I had ran out, there’d be no replacements. I ended up continuing anyway, and finished the piece with only two pens left at the end!

Date Completed: January 3rd 2023

Size of Original: 18x24

Medium: Micro-Pen Pointillism and Chalk Pastel

Availability: Original FOR SALE

Scroll down to see progress photos of this piece!

  • October 2019

    The Beginning - These were the first dots I put on this piece! I started in October of 2019, but when I began, I already knew that this was not a “complete in one session” piece. At the time, I was teaching my highschool art class, and so this project was more for something to do in my free time.

  • November 2019

    The World Is Changing - This progress photo was taken just before I took a very long break from this piece. Covid was about to hit, but we didn’t know it yet, and I had taken this photo just before the end of one of the classes I had been teaching. It happened to be the last time I touched this piece for a long while, as things suddenly exploded across the globe, and my priorities changed from my art to navigating the way of life.

  • February 2021

    Returning… To Disappear Again - After leaving this piece for over a year, I finally returned to it. I hadn’t had time over the whole of 2020 to work on this, as I had just moved to my first house ever, on Vancouver Island, and had become part of the massive Black Lives Matter Movement that swept the globe that year. I’m glad I took this break, as being part of that movement gave me even more inspiration and motivation to create this!

  • July 2022

    Finally Back - 2021 ended up being almost as hectic for me as 2020 had been, and so not long after taking the last progress photo, I took another break from this piece. I had gotten incredibly busy building this website for the first time, as well as creating my small business, and so I chose to hold off on this, as my business and my acrylic paintings were my priority.

  • October 2022

    The Final Stretch - In October of 2022, I finally realized I had the time and energy to just sit down, and finish this piece off! I had just Made the move from Vancouver Island back to Vancouver, and now had a studio set up to work in, and I remember going out and buying all sorts of snacks and tea and just hunkering down in my studio for what would be the next two months!

  • December 2022

    Almost There… - Finally completing the full outline of the face of this piece really did make me need to see it completed. As soon as I realized I only had that little section of his forehead to do, I put my head down, and didn’t leave my desk for 11 hours straight. My original idea was to also do the clothing and background in pointillism as well, but decided that I’d rather have the focal point of the piece be the detail in the face.

  • January 2023

    Completion - I finally completed this piece in January of 2023, over three years after I had begun. This piece was, and still is, my largest portrait ever completed! Going through this journey was super interesting to me, as every time I came back from one of my breaks, I had learned more about portraiture and realism, and was able to enhance what was already there. Finishing this off has only made me want to start another!